Racing rockets

As Alfred Nobel knew, prizes spur innovation. That fact, more than any other, has been taken to heart by Peter Diamandis, the space enthusiast who invented the Ansari X-Prize in order to encourage entrepreneurs to design and build new kinds of spaceship. Almost a year ago, SpaceShipOne received the $10m prize for making it into space twice in a fortnight, and today a commercial version of this ship is being built. But Mr Diamandis is not happy to rest on his laurels. He has now turned his attention to another pressing requirement of the space industry: better propulsion. So this week he launched his latest wheeze: the Rocket Racing League—Formula 1 racing in the skies. The idea is simply to race rockets, at many hundreds of kilometres an hour, around a course. Exciting to watch, and almost certain to inspire innovation among those who compete. The first generation of racers are currently being built by XCOR Aerospace of Mojave, California—a company based in a hangar only steps away from where SpaceShipTwo is under development.